Prologue

The Sun has set for quite a long time ago. Darkness has come to roam the land which was once occupied by the warm sunlight. The city that was once lit up with glamorous neon lights and roads that were once severely jammed with whooshing vehicles has finally died down to complete silence. The dazzling city was sleeping.

But it didn't apply for the police force. Nor did their greatest enemies—thieves.

Despite this city, Konoha had an international fame for its strong police force which met the international standard, but thievery was still very prosperous.

They might be able to handle with the minor ones, but they were out of idea to catch the greatest thief of all—Kaitou Haruna, the Queen of the Thieves.

The police had always had an awful headache on how to arrest her. Before her every stealing, she would leave a note about her action. No matter how strong and fine the defences were, she would dispatch them all without any trace and use them on the cops inversely. With her swift and silent actions, she had never failed to steal her targets once and the original treasure were replaced by very clever fakes, which cannot be recognized with bare eyes or even under some very high-tech machines. It seemed that fooling the cops around was where her greatest enjoyment came from.

Today, the same fate has fallen on the most exquisite pearl necklace.

The cops were roaring and cursing loudly in the building, but they had totally ignored the sleek dark figure above them, smirking at their foolishness.

It skipped through storeys-high skyscrapers at the speed of light and it stopped on top of an eight-storey high living estate. After judging the conditions, it jumped and dropped into a balcony like walking in the air, crept into the dark silent house through the closed-but-not-locked window and disappeared into one of the rooms.

Bang! Bang! The doors were banged so vigorously that it seemed to be broken sooner or later, despite that there was a bell. When the owner of the house opened the door, she blinked sleepily and gave a big yawn to the fuming grouchy visitor.

"Ino, you know, it was two o'clock in the morning. You may wake the others up if you bang my door. Also, haven't I installed a bell?" She asked the girl who was sulking in a way that she might outburst many "colourful" words in a moment.

"Haruno Sakura!! I allow you to get changed in a minute, and then come with me!!" Ino shrieked at the top of her lungs which the sound intensity was so great that it might hurt one's eardrums. Sakura, however, knew her friend so well that she had stuffed her ears with her fingers from the damaging sound intensity level.

"Okay, okay girl, calm your hot self down. Be in a sec." She closed the door and heaved a sigh. Saved! She thought, as she hid something of "top secret" under her bed, turned out from her pyjamas into street clothes and dashed out in no time.